June 30, 2005
Dolores Beasley/Marta Metelko
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1753/1642)
Dewayne Washington
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-0040)
RELEASE: 05-170
NASA INSTRUMENT LAUNCHES ON JAPANESE OBSERVATORY
A pioneering X-ray detector developed at NASA'S Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. will launch on board the new Astro-E2
space observatory.
Astro-E2's primary instrument is the high-resolution X-ray
Spectrometer (XRS), developed jointly by GSFC and the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA) Institute of Space and Astronautical
Science (ISAS). The XRS measures the heat created by the individual
X-ray photons (light particles) it collects.
To sense the heat of a single photon, the XRS detector must be cooled
to an extremely low temperature, approximately - 460 degrees
Fahrenheit. The coldest reaches of space are approximately -454
degrees Fahrenheit. This will make the XRS colder than space. Using
this new technique, scientists can measure higher X-ray energies with
a precision about ten times greater than with previous sensors.
"Astro-E2 will showcase an entirely new technology that will not only
serve as a test bed for future missions but produce some spectacular
science to boot," said Dr. Anne Kinney, director of the Universe
Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "This is the highly
anticipated complement to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and
Europe's XMM-Newton. Scientists around the world eagerly await the
launch," she added.
Astro-E2 was developed at JAXA's ISAS in collaboration with U.S.
scientists and other Japanese institutions. The mission will contain
three X-ray instruments. Scientists will use these to study phenomena
that radiate predominantly in X- rays.
Astro-E2 will study black holes and the creation of chemical elements
necessary for life. Key targets include hot gas falling toward black
holes; the million-degree ejecta of star explosions filled with newly
minted elements such as oxygen and calcium; and the optically
invisible gas between stars and galaxies, which comprise most of the
ordinary mass in the universe.
"Incoming light particles will raise the temperature of the detector
by only a few thousandths of a degree," said Dr. Richard Kelley,
Principal Investigator for the U.S. contribution to Astro-E2.
"Knowing the precise energy that these light particles carry, we can
infer new information about their origins," he added.
Along with the XRS are four X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS)
instruments, a collaboration among Japanese institutions and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the Hard X- Ray Detector
(HXD), built by the University of Tokyo, ISAS and other Japanese
institutions.
The XRS and XIS instruments will analyze X-ray photons focused by
individual telescopes, built at GSFC by a team led by Dr. Peter
Serlemitsos. The HXD also uses a tested and improved technology.
Astro-E2 will be launched on an M-V rocket and will attain a
near-Earth circular orbit at approximately 353.4 miles. The
observatory's expected mission lifetime is five years. The
observatory will launch July 6 from Japan's Uchinoura Space Center.
With its official name to be bestowed after deployment, Astro-E2 is
the fifth in a series of Japanese satellites devoted to studying
celestial X-ray sources. Previous missions are Hakucho, Tenma, Ginga,
and ASCA.
For more information about ISAS and JAXA on the Internet, visit:
http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/
For more information about Astro-E2 on the Internet, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/astro-e2
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